In the May report of airlines on-time performance, JetBlue was number one — In flight delays. JetBlue is known for many things in the airline business including cheap flights, blue potato chips and really tight seating arrangements.

I also think they hold the record (or close to it) for having kept passengers in the plane on the runway.

Steven Slater, ex-flight attendant and Facebook celebrity

I don’t really condone JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater for having opened the escape chute of the plane but we can all relate to times of intense pressure and stress. We’ve all been through it but most us have the liberty of leaving a pressure packed situation — leaving the office to get a breath of fresh air, just stopping the car and getting out, or just hanging up on a call.

Steven Slater, the JetBlue flight attendant who activated an exit chute on a just-landed plane at Kennedy International Airport after a dispute with a passenger did not have option of just getting out. Slater was stuck in the plane with the unruly passenger who slammed a overhead baggage door on his head.

I’ve always been told that walking away from potentially violent situations was the best thing to do. I still think it’s the right thing to do.

So what’s a stressed out guy to do? Punching the passenger would have been worse so Steven Slater bailed out in the fastest way he knew – Open the chute, grab two beers and slide out. And while I don’t recommend it, what Slater said sounds good to me and I doubt that he will ever be convicted by a jury of his peers.

Slater was arraigned today on felony charges of reckless endangerment and criminal mischief in a packed room in the basement of criminal court in Queens, Mr. Slater’s court-appointed lawyer, Howard Turman, said that Mr. Slater’s activation of the slide was not reckless. He said Mr. Slater followed the proper procedure for activating the slide, checking out the window first to make sure no one was on the tarmac who could be struck by it.

Mr. Turman, of the Legal Aid Society, offered an account of the flight, JetBlue 1052 from Pittsburgh, that he said justified Mr. Slater’s actions. He told reporters that on the ground in Pittsburgh, a female passenger had been verbally and physically abusive to Mr. Slater when he intervened as she squabbled with a male passenger over access to the overhead luggage compartment.

“The woman initially at Pittsburgh slammed the overhead into his head,” Mr. Turman said of Mr. Slater.

A passenger on the flight, Greg Kanczes, said that he saw a large, fresh looking gash on Mr. Slater’s forehead at the beginning of the flight. “It was about an inch-and-half long, and it was a big red mark or cut.”